MAY. 
115 
which he accordingly did, and found a very large green frog, 
which was dead of course, but unbroken. It seems impossi- 
ble that so slender an animal as a snake can swallow or con- 
tain so large a creature as a frog, but the jaws, throat, and 
body, are capable of prodigious distension. 
C — I have read that the sloughs of snakes are an object 
of superstition with some Indian tribes, and are used in their 
pretended magical rites. 
F, — They are also an indispensable article in the nests of 
some birds ; perhaps from their softness, as they are ex- 
tremely thin and smooth. 
I have lately perceived the young deep green leaves 
of the Wild Leek (Allium Vincale) sprouting through the 
dead leaves on the ground, in the maple woods. This plant 
is greedily eaten by the cattle, probably because anything 
fresh and green is now acceptable to them ; but if milch 
cows eat it, it gives a strong and unpleasant taste to their 
milk, so as sometimes to make it unfit for use. This flavour 
is in a considerable degree dissipated by slightly heating it 
as soon as brought in. 
C. — I was much deceived last evening in a sound I 
heard : as I was standing in the field behind the house, about 
twilight, I heard what seemed to be the rattling of a thou- 
sand carriages on a rough road, about half a mile off. I 
could not think what it could be ; but on going towards it, 
I found it proceeded from the marshy spot below the barn, 
and on my approaching discovered that it was nothing more 
than the cackling and croaking of myriads of frogs. As I 
came pretty close, I could see one after another splash into 
the water, and the croaking gradually grew less and less 
until it altogether ceased. I had not left them long, how- 
ever, before they tuned up their musical throats again, and 
